Br. Bernard Jean Delcourt, OHC
Proper 29 B – Sunday, November 25, 2018
2 Samuel 23:1-7 or Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
Revelation 1:4b-8
John 18:33-37
Click here for an audio version of the sermon.
After all, Jesus is part of the one and indivisible Trinity. So when we read about Jesus announcing that the Kingdom of God is close at hand, we retrofit Jesus into the phrase the Kingdom of God. We see God the Creator and Sustainer of All as putting Jesus, his Anointed One, the Christ, on the throne above all earthly thrones.
But biblical or otherwise, there is no metaphor we can use about God that fully encompasses God. Each and every one of our metaphors for God grasp at some aspect of the Godhead without fully capturing God.
Can you hear me struggling with the phrase “Christ the King?” So I tried to not deal with it in this sermon. And as is usual, in such instances, God would not let me get away with it. So here go the musings of one who prefers other titles of Jesus.
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Illogically, I have no problem with the title “Lord.” As a child, I learned to address Jesus as “Seigneur,” French for “Lord” without thinking about what a lord was in the world. It was like a term of endearment between me and Jesus.
But I should have similar problems to call Jesus “Lord”, if I have problems with “King.” Lord is an appellation for a person who has authority, control, or power over others acting like a master, a chief, or a ruler. It can also be used to refer to a deity with the same attributes.
I think that is also how I think of King in the title “Christ the King.” It makes me think of an overlord who can be arbitrary in his exercise of absolute power.
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Somehow, my admittedly limited concept of God focuses more on attributes of caring, empathizing, guiding, teaching and unifying. I do understand that Jesus is not always meek and sweet. But I do think of him primarily as a Lover; my Beloved and lover, your lover, your lover. I’m not worried about sharing my divine lover.
I guess that’s why I am always so moved by the passage of the gospel according to John where Thomas exclaims ‘My Lord and my God!’ (John 20:28)
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As for the image of a King, I suppose the Psalms don’t help me when they state “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.” (Psalm 146:3) King is an attribute I see in humans not in God.
It seems to me that in his lifetime, Jesus shirked the title of King. I think he was aware that it was a political construct that reduced him to a zealot who would overthrow the Roman occupiers to restore the Kingdom of Israel.
But as John the Evangelist has Jesus answer to Pilate: “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” (John 18:36)
Jesus is willing to play with the King metaphor because that is how Pilate understands the dynamic between them. Pilate is guarding the supremacy of the Roman Empire against any competing claims to political power. But Jesus is beyond that power dynamic. His purpose is to testify to the truth (John 18:37); a higher truth than that of any Kingdom, especially an earthly one.
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The only time I understand Jesus as implying he will be King in the Gospels is in the Gospel according to Matthew where Jesus speaks privately to the apostles.
“Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matthew 19:28)
If the apostles are on twelve thrones, who is this Son of Man seated on his throne but Jesus himself? Did the apostles understand this saying as referring to an earthly restoration of the Kingdom of Israel? Maybe.
Is that what Judas told the High Priest Jesus was up to? That may be why they accused him of calling himself the “King of the Jews,” a title we don’t find claimed directly by Jesus anywhere in the Gospels.
In any case, that would have been a reductive interpretation of what Jesus was trying to tell the disciples. It seems to me Jesus was referring to a metaphorical Kingdom beyond secular ones; a throne he would ascend to after his resurrection.
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The feast of Christ the King is a fairly recent one in the Christian Church having been instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical letter Quas Primas (In The First). It came in reaction to the horrors of World War 1 and the rise of totalitarian regimes (fascist as well a communist ones).
In his encyclical, Pius writes "...the Word of God, as consubstantial with the Father, has all things in common with him, and therefore has necessarily supreme and absolute dominion over all things created."(Pope Pius XI, Quas primas, §7).
In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus says: "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me." (Matthew 28:18)
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I do understand the Christian impetus to establish the primacy of God’s dominion on creation over that of secular regimes and ideologies. In the face of imperialism or totalitarianism, it is very reassuring to think of God as an almighty monarch who can protect us from the abuses of earthly powers.
Maybe there is mileage yet in the title of Christ the King as a means of resistance in the face of abusive uses of political powers.
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In the meantime, I will focus on what my Beloved taught us: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Lord Jesus Christ, Beloved, you are the Alpha and the Omega. You are my Lord and my God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Make me an instrument of your Love.
Amen.
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